Getting Stationed in Germany or Italy Difficulty (Army)

FØB Zero said:
Why so many Alaska?
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2 locations in Alaska:
  • Ft. Wainwright - US Army Alaska HQ, 1st Brigade Stryker Combat Team, 25th ID, plus support units
  • Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson - 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th ID
Numbers can vary considerably from year to year. The number in the chart for 2018 (17) was much lower than the number for 2020, which was 40 (22 Wainwright, 18 JB Elmendorf).
 
jl123 said:
2 locations in Alaska:
  • Ft. Wainwright - US Army Alaska HQ, 1st Brigade Stryker Combat Team, 25th ID, plus support units
  • Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson - 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th ID
Numbers can vary considerably from year to year. The number in the chart for 2018 (17) was much lower than the number for 2020, which was 40 (22 Wainwright, 18 JB Elmendorf).
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My mistake. I read the wrong column. 40 is the total number of Alaska slots for 2020. Infantry was the same as 2018, 17 (9 Wainwright, 8 JB Elmendorf).
 
txfwindian said:
Is Ft Polk that notorious?
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Capt MJ said:
This made me laugh.

Each service has its “Satan’s armpit” duty stations. They are either in the middle of nowhere or have other unredeeming qualities. They are usually not as bad as you think they are going to be, until you realize the standard going-away gift is a photo of the base shown in a rear-view mirror.
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a couple of weeks late to this party, but couldn't resist the opportunity to add a couple of Lincoln's...

I was the distinguished honor grad from my MOS training school, and was there was an unwritten rule the DHG gets orders for the top choice on their dream sheet. Turns out when the DHG is kind of a smart-a$$ and the NCOIC of the school tells you that's the reason you're getting orders for Ft. Polk then yes, it's that notorious. Keep in mind, I was not in a combat arms field and this was before Ft. Polk became JRTC.

DW and I arrived there in 1989 on her 21st birthday, there were dark, cloudy skies, and on day one it certainly felt like being sentenced to the "armpit of the earth". We still tell stories of the early search for housing, one trailer we looked at was littered with hundreds of dead roaches as long as a finger, I guess it was proof they just fumigated it and it was "nuthin' a broom an' a trash bag won't fix" according to the manager. DW cried and thankfully the guest house on post was a decent place to stay, but as an E-3, we were limited to a week there. We eventually found a decent apartment in Leesville, but it wouldn't be available for a few weeks, so we found a local motel that rented by the week, the rooms were each 1/3 of a trailer. In that first week, we got the U-Haul unloaded to storage and I finished in-processing and reported in to my unit on a Friday. Just in time too, because we were leaving Monday for a 1 week field exercise and since I was FNG, I got to replace someone on the CQ roster for Saturday night.

Long story short, we hated it when we got there, but it grew on us, we came from an area where grocery stores, fast food and just about everything else was open 24/7. At Ft. Polk, especially in Leesville, the sidewalks literally rolled up at night by 9:00 and by 5:00 on Sundays. We got used to a slower paced lifestyle and value the experience. If faced with a choice today to live there or somewhere else, we'd choose somewhere else, but it would be fun to consider it briefly. Can't say it's on our bucket list of places to visit, but if we ever find ourselves within a couple of hours from there, we'd likely take a side trip for a walk down memory lane.
 
So I just shared this post with DW, she reminded me of the expression of when you tell someone you were stationed at Ft. Polk, the response is usually, "who'd you pi$$ off?". She also said it's one of those places that you cried when you arrived (she did), and you cried when you left (she did), the southern hospitality was incredible.
 
That reminds me of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, where the saying was “You will get one of the three D’s: dog, divorce or dependent.” Since it’s often the first shore tour after operational/sea duty, “starter marriages” founder when the couple lives together without deployments, officers get married or have a child, or finally get a dog.

Great duty station as a student - San Francisco/Napa/Sonoma a few hours to the north, great produce from Salinas and the valley, Pacific Coast Highway, Monterey itself, decent climate, never too hot.
 
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Capt MJ said:
That reminds me of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, where the saying was “You will get one of the three D’s: dog, divorce or dependent.” Since it’s often the first shore tour after operational/sea duty, “starter marriages” founder when the couple lives together without deployments, officers get married or have a child, or finally get a dog.

Great duty station as a student - San Francisco/Napa/Sonoma a few hours to the north, great produce from Salinas and the valley, Pacific Coast Highway, Monterey itself, decent climate, never too hot.
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Famous quote from students there about the workload: "Its a lot of reading if you do it"
 
Capt MJ said:
That reminds me of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, where the saying was “You will get one of the three D’s: dog, divorce or dependent.” Since it’s often the first shore tour after operational/sea duty, “starter marriages” founder when the couple lives together without deployments, officers get married or have a child, or finally get a dog.

Great duty station as a student - San Francisco/Napa/Sonoma a few hours to the north, great produce from Salinas and the valley, Pacific Coast Highway, Monterey itself, decent climate, never too hot.
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Also has some of the best SCUBA diving on the planet!
 
My son is a pilot in the Air Force. I am usually on forums that deal with the Air Force and of course, bases are discussed. Which is the better base for pilot training, the best place for this and base or that. The funny part is 90% of the time, whatever base they are discussing (usually the bad ones) they always end it with, well at least I am not going to Minot (N. Dakota). Which of course is the base my son is stationed at. Always makes me laugh. Minot actually is a pretty decent base and city. The only issue with Minot is that it can get fifty below zero in the winter and those who complain have never been there but its what they hear from others. As for seeing the world, my son volunteered to work on some exercise they are having in S. Korea. Won't be flying but working behind the scenes. He is excited to see and experience Seoul Korea for the month he will be there My point is that you don't have to be stationed in a foreign city to visit it. There can be short term stints where you can see the world
 
Capt MJ said:
That reminds me of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, where the saying was “You will get one of the three D’s: dog, divorce or dependent.” Since it’s often the first shore tour after operational/sea duty, “starter marriages” founder when the couple lives together without deployments, officers get married or have a child, or finally get a dog.

Great duty station as a student - San Francisco/Napa/Sonoma a few hours to the north, great produce from Salinas and the valley, Pacific Coast Highway, Monterey itself, decent climate, never too hot.
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Ha...my sister (AF) got another dependent and a dog at NPS. They loved living there. She had just come back from a deployment and it was the perfect assignment for her family. I am pretty sure that she spent more time at the aquarium than in class. I don't recall her mentioning any reading.

To the OP, I hope you get over to Europe eventually. I will say that DH and I (joint AF and Army) enjoyed every one of our bases (well, maybe not Goodfellow AFB). People gave me such grim reports when we were to be stationed at Pope/Bragg, but I'd go back to live there in a heartbeat.
 
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